The Minimal Phone hits Indiegogo for $350 and up (E Ink phone with a QWERTY keyboard)

The Minimal Phone is an Android phone with a screen that bucks almost every trend in the modern smartphone space. Instead of a big screen with vibrant colors and a high refresh rate it has a small black and white E Ink display positioned above a physi…

The Minimal Phone is an Android phone with a screen that bucks almost every trend in the modern smartphone space. Instead of a big screen with vibrant colors and a high refresh rate it has a small black and white E Ink display positioned above a physical keyboard, making the phone look a bit like a modern […]

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Blue Origin is getting serious about developing a human spacecraft

Company seeks: “Experience with human spaceflight or high-performance aircraft systems?”

Dave Limp, Blue Origin's new CEO, and founder Jeff Bezos observe the New Glenn rocket on its launch pad Wednesday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Enlarge / Dave Limp, Blue Origin's new CEO, and founder Jeff Bezos observe the New Glenn rocket on its launch pad Wednesday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. (credit: Jeff Bezos via Instagram)

The space company named Blue Origin is having a big year. New chief executive Dave Limp, who arrived in December, is working to instill a more productive culture at the firm owned by Jeff Bezos. In January, the company's powerful BE-4 rocket engine performed very well on the debut launch of the Vulcan booster. And later this year, possibly as soon as August, Blue Origin's own heavy-lift rocket, New Glenn, will take flight.

But wait, there's more. The company has also been hard at work developing hardware that will fly on New Glenn, such as the Blue Ring transfer vehicle that will be used to ferry satellites into precise orbits. In addition, work continues on a private space station called Orbital Reef.

One of the key questions about that space station is how astronauts will get there. The only current means of US crew transportation to low-Earth orbit is via Blue Origin's direct competitor, SpaceX, with its Dragon vehicle. This is likely unpalatable for Bezos.

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MacBook Airs get an M3 upgrade, while the M1 model is finally retired

M2 Air is the new $999 base model, M1 Air goes away after more than 3 years.

Apple is refreshing the MacBook Air with M3 chips but leaving everything else about the 2022 redesign intact.

Enlarge / Apple is refreshing the MacBook Air with M3 chips but leaving everything else about the 2022 redesign intact. (credit: Apple)

Apple has quietly refreshed its MacBook Air lineup, bringing new chips (and in some cases, new prices) to its most popular laptops. New 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs include Apple's latest-generation M3 chip, while the old M2 MacBook Air now replaces 2020's M1 MacBook Air as Apple's $999 entry-level laptop. The new 13- and 15-inch M3 systems start at $1,099 and $1,299; they can be ordered today and will be released on March 8.

The new Airs use the same design as the M2 versions. Compared to older M1 and late-Intel-era Airs, they have slightly larger displays with a prominent notch, a non-tapered but still thin-and-light chassis, larger trackpads, modestly refined keyboards, and a MagSafe port for charging.

All of the new Airs use the M3, with no options to upgrade to faster or more capable processors (frustratingly, this means the Air is still restricted to just a single external display). The $1,099 13-inch Air does use a slightly cut-down version of the chip with 8 GPU cores instead of 10, with the 10-core GPU available as a $100 upgrade; all 15-inch models use the fully enabled M3 with the 10-core GPU.

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15 und 13 Zoll: Das Macbook Air mit M3-Chip ist da

Apple stellt zwei neue Macbook-Air-Modelle vor. Die bekommen ein Chip-Upgrade. Ein M2-Modell bleibt erhalten und wird noch etwas günstiger. (Macbook Air, Apple)

Apple stellt zwei neue Macbook-Air-Modelle vor. Die bekommen ein Chip-Upgrade. Ein M2-Modell bleibt erhalten und wird noch etwas günstiger. (Macbook Air, Apple)